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Based on Ameer Shahul’s acclaimed investigative book, the feature is being envisioned as a high-stakes corporate-environmental thriller in the tradition of Erin Brockovich, Dark Waters and Chernobyl. Filming is set to commence shortly.
One of India’s most extraordinary environmental battles is now headed for the big screen.
Vikram Malhotra-led Abundantia Entertainment and Prabhleen Sandhu-led Almighty Motion Picture are joining forces to produce Heavy Metal, a powerful feature film inspired by Ameer Shahul’s investigative book Heavy Metal: How a Global Corporation Poisoned Kodaikanal, published by Pan Macmillan.
The project has now moved into pre-production, with principal casting underway and filming scheduled to begin soon.
Set against the backdrop of the mercury contamination controversy in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, the film will revisit events surrounding a thermometer factory operated by Hindustan Unilever. The issue came into public focus in 2001 following allegations concerning the disposal of mercury-contaminated waste.
What began as a local environmental controversy grew into a prolonged battle involving former factory workers, local communities, environmental campaigners and Greenpeace — eventually drawing international attention to questions of worker safety, industrial accountability and environmental responsibility.
The creative ambition, according to those familiar with the project, is to build a film with the investigative urgency of Erin Brockovich and Dark Waters and the scale, tension and human consequences associated with Chernobyl.
For Almighty Motion Picture, Heavy Metal marks another step in the company’s growing slate of stories inspired by consequential real-world events, people and institutions, following its recent streaming series Made in India: A Titan Story.
The collaboration with Abundantia Entertainment brings together two production houses looking to transform the material into a film that operates simultaneously as a corporate thriller, an investigative mystery and an intimate human drama.
The cast, director and further production details are expected to be officially unveiled in the coming days.